Da Paolo Blueberry Cheesecake

On an ordinary weekday evening, as G and I take a leisurely window shop in Paragon after dinner, we passed the Gastronomia by Da Paolo and decided to grab a couple of snacks and dessert home. Hubby ordered the pamma ham sandwich and I was fickle between the banana bread and the blueberry cheesecake. He ordered me to take both, so both we did.

On the drive home, I must admit that based on first impressions, I was having regrets. Firstly, it was just plain greed, second, it was a tad extravagant for a cake and second, it really didn't look that appetising.

But I was so wrong! This is one of the best cheesecakes I have ever had! So good, I had to stop hubby midway through his enjoyment in the second bite, just so that we could get a decent photo of it. The cheese was rich and creamy, smooth throughout even at the edges despite refrigeration, yet it was not cloying or "je-lat". The thin crust was crumbly and light, providing just the appropriate balance to the cheese. The blueberries that we initially thought didn't look appetising, added a nice natural sweetness to the fluffy cheese and light biscuit.
I'm craving another bite just writing about it! Good thing we kept half of it in the fridge for an encore. Yum!

And my Sister Cooks

It's been more then a year now and someone has successfully kidnapped my sister of the old and swapped her with a cook, and probably, a chef in the making.

It started with a few hits and misses, a few tasty snacks occasionally and now, it's become 3 or 4 course dinners on weekends with dishes like truffle Shepard's pie, braised ox-tail, roasted wagyu rump, squid ink risotto, etc. I still remember our younger days when she would beg me to make a bowl of Indo-mee with an egg for her and scoff at the notion of even stepping into a kitchen for anything more then to pour a glass of water.

Now, a refurnished kitchen and 2 Pantry Magic oven mittens later, it's hard to keep her out of the kitchen even. So to do her some justice, and to my poor Brother-in-law B who has to painstakingly scrub out the deep fryer and cast-iron pot at the end of the evening's work, I though I should start capturing some of her culinary achievements and feats.


Our dinner on Sunday started with some home-made salsa and chips. Followed by some buttermilk fried chicken. The fried chicken was quite yummy, holding their crisp even coming out of the deep fryer for quite awhile. They did remind me of the fried chicken mum used to make when we were young.
Next was a seafood Paella. It was really good for a first attempt. It helped of course that there was a generous amount of scallop, prawns and chorizo.

Finally, we had a beef stew. This was the 2nd time L was attempting this. She has this thing about 'practising' to perfect the right amounts of salt and timing for her stew. Almost there!

We ended dinner with some home-made chocolate chip pound cake that Karen came over earlier to make together with L. The heavenly smells had already filled the entire apartment in the afternoon so I had already snuck in a slice before dinner.


Anyone like an invite for dinner, or enjoy being Guinea pigs to kitchen experiments, do let me know! I think the next attempt would be my late beloved Kong Kong's chicken rice.

Another B-DAY for Hubby

Pomelo Basil Bellini
Yes, its another year. Time flies, and its another B-day for hubby. After the big 3-0, the B-day becomes a bad word and the number of candles start lessening on any cake and soon enough, even the cake is not wanted. But, we can't do away without something nice?! After all, its the last number before 35! It's the little nudge just before you go officially over the hill.. (sorry hubby!)

So it's not like we can take a hop and a skip onto a plane to El Bulli in Spain on a whim and fancy to experience one of Hubby's want-to-tries restaurants, so Tippling Club in Dempsey would just have to do.
They opened their doors in August 2008, sharing the premises with House. Personally, I didn't know they existed till now, even when I had paid a few occasional dessert visits to House. They have been receiving mixed reviews since then, mainly being jibe for being pricey for a degustation menu in bite-size portions. I suppose if you are expecting a robust steak and a huge serving of fries or cous cous on the side, I would say, go to Mortons. If you are expecting a fine dining experience, with dishes that sound more like a science experiment rather then kitchen couture, call for a reservation. If you want to factor in the economic recession, make the call for lunch.

It's an open concept with a bar and dessert kitchen dominating the center stage of the restaurant. Diners sit around this "stage" mimicking a school science lab, as the bar tenders, chefs and waiters busied themselves with the fancy equipment. The main kitchen where all the dinner courses are meticulously prepared sits behind the open kitchen.

The Chappelle Brothers

You'll notice that most of the pictures taken are far more artistic and professional then the ones normally featured on my blog. That's cos they weren't taken by me. To allow us to enjoy our dinner, with no fuss and stress on good photography, Joseph our waiter kindly offered to send us all the photos of our courses that night. So, photo credits go to Stephen Black, Thank You. Now please don't sue me.

Before dinner began, we were treated to a 4 course amuse buse. The first was a Parmesan cheese soup served with micro greens on what looked a bit like a glass petri dish. Next was squid ink with calamari rings. The next course was interesting - charred peppers with a soy wasabi sauce of which the charred look was cleverly concocted with a light batter coloured black.
And the last amuse buse was my favourite. Mint grapes charged with a little carbon to make them fizzy to the bite. And to quote Joseph our waiter for the evening, we had a "good chew of it" to indulge in the flavours before our dinner started.

My main dinner started out with breakfast, a 62 degree egg and a Kopi-O.

Fashioned after the typical half-boiled egg easily available at any coffee shop, the dried tomato powder and garlic Parmesan crumbs gave the egg white froth a nice twist. They even served the Kopi-O (dressed heavily with rum) in a glass in a takeaway plastic bag, cute.

Hubby's first course was a little more intriguing. He had a frozen bowl of butternut pumpkin soup served with goats cheese crumb and white chocolate jelly.

One of the highlights of our dinner would have to be the foie gras + / -. Served contrastingly, one portion was deep fried at 37 degree temperature to achieve a liquid foie gras while another was put under -7 degree freeze to obtain the crumbly texture. If eaten together, they compliment each other at the perfect room temperature for foie gras. "Deconstructing foie gras!" as Joseph our wait staff for the evening emphasizes. And easily our yummiest course for the night.


The second favourite would have to be the quail satay with a thai green curry foam.
The little wings just invites the fingers to grab them and bite into the juicy meat. And where is the Satay you might ask? Well it's in the crumbs of course!



The next few courses sounded pretty spectacular as well, but unfortunately, felt pretty ordinary and failed to impress.
The pork belly scallop was a 12 hour oven-baked belly of pork, compressed and pan-seared to lock in the juices and to compact all the flavours was served with a spiced pumpkin puree and grapes in a brown sauce.

One of the last few courses was the frog with black pepper sauce served with chicken chips and accompanied by basil jelly. The frog was pretty ordinary, but I couldn't believe the little chips served atop of the frog was not our usual wanton skins, but chicken breast crisps!

The desserts of the degustation menu were also pretty in line with the quirky molecular gastronomy. I asked for a mock tail to accompany my dessert and Joesph readily complied. So my Agave smash was a non-alcoholic version with fresh fruits, honey and a dash of ginger beer.


This accompanied the first of the desserts to roll out - the passion fruit cloud. A home-made basil ice-cream - infused with a chemical to ensure that the ice-cream remains a certain texture and doesn't melt for at least 15 mins during service - is paired with the tart passion fruit moouse and tuille with a light basil crumble.
Never thought I would be a fan of a vegetable or herb ice-cream but the flavours came together pretty nicely.

The next dessert on the 10-course menu was the snowball. A white chocolate and coconut moouse sprinkled with orange fizz and Japanese lemon. A little queer at the first taste but the chocolate and coconut flavours grows on you.

Finally, we got to the last dessert course and quite aptly, it was a simple banana topped with soy chocolate and tonca bean ice cream.


We ended dinner with a cute wand of lavender fairy floss each and a small bag of tea leaves to take home.
All in all, I would say that the Tippling Club is certainly an experience. Molecular dining isn't new in Singapore, but I applaud their brave decision to invest in such expensive and high-tech equipment, all for the love of experimenting and creating food fit for the appreciative and discerning diner who shares your equivalent passion for fine culinary execution.
Sad to say, it's probably only a small minority in Singapore who would give up a hearty portion of good chili crab for this.

The Tippling Club
8 Dempsey Road Singapore 249762
6475 2217